I have to clear out this tab backlog, either by blogging them, or del.icio.us’ing them, or just deleting them, because my laptop is rather hosed and needs a reboot. And while I know I can save all tabs in Firefox, I’ve done that before in similar circumstances and never gotten back to them. So, here are a few more items that have been open in my browser for awhile….
- Many have already written about the horrible racist hatemongering and incitement to riots that McCain and especially Palin have been up to in recent days. They have been more blatant and more extreme than even Dubya was, with his dogwhistle appeals to people who, for whatever reason, are a-feared of the brown people. There is a virulent strain of racism and bigotry in America though, and it is appalling that McCain and Palin see fit to stir it up. Digby notes:
Validating a bogus accusation that your political rival is a terrorist in our current environment is the most irresponsible thing I’ve seen a campaign do in many a year. They know they are very likely going to lose this election. And McCain certainly knows that the main reason he is losing is because of the dramatic failures of fellow failed Republican George W. Bush. But even knowing that his candidacy was always very likely doomed is not stopping him from releasing this poison into the bloodstream of the body politic, a poison which will be with us for a long time to come.
Paul Krugman (who just won the Nobel Prize for economics) discusses the insane rage at McCain/Palin rallies, reminds us of all the crazy BS spewed about the Clintons and observes:
What it came down to was that a significant fraction of the American population, backed by a lot of money and political influence, simply does not consider government by liberals (even very moderate liberals) legitimate. Ronald Reagan was supposed to have settled that once and for all.
What happens when Obama is elected? It will be even worse than it was in the Clinton years. For sure there will be crazy accusations, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see some violence.
The next few years are going to be very, very tough.
- If I were a proper blogger, I could probably make good use of Sweetcron – The Automated Lifestream Blog Software. Maybe one of these days.
- Scalzi is apparently sometimes criticized for writing about politics on his own website. Some people threaten not to buy his fiction books because of things he’s written on his site. He has a response to such nonsense:
Why yes, fiction writers should write about politics, if they choose to. And so should doctors and plumbers and garbage collectors and lawyers and teachers and chefs and scientists and truck drivers and stay-at-home parents and the unemployed. In fact, every single adult who has reason enough to sit down and express an opinion through words should feel free to do just that. Having a citizenry that is engaged in the actual working of democracy matters to the democracy, and writing about politics is a fine way to provide evidence that one is actually thinking about these things.
[...]The idea that practicing any profession somehow obliges or even encourages a vow of silence on any subject, politics or otherwise, that might offend someone somewhere, is odious. Everyone should be encouraged to say what they wish to say about the important matters of the day. Everyone should feel that participation in the life of their community and their state and nation is a critical act. To do less invites ignorance and ultimately tyranny.
The last three sentences are sort of an old school blogger’s manifesto, I think.
